


Twisting Kaleidoscope

by sullenhearts



Category: Bandom, Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 19:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7946239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sullenhearts/pseuds/sullenhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Travie realises the depths of his feelings for Bill</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twisting Kaleidoscope

Travie is absolutely not looking at the doorway, okay, he's absolutely NOT watching every patron who comes in, just in case they're a skinny dark haired white guy, the skinny dark haired white guy that Travis does NOT want to speak to, any how. He's trying to pay attention to the band, but they're kinda dull, and he isn't buzzed enough yet to just get lost in the rhythm.

Disashi says, "Quit looking at the door."

"I'm _not_ ," Travie growls. 

"Sure you are."

Travie sucks his beer to avoid snapping again. Five minutes later he almost misses Butcher and Sisky coming in. 

If they're here, Bill is here, right? That's how it works with those guys. A few minutes later he sees Carden come in with the Australian. Travie flinches, expecting Bill to be right behind them, but he isn't to be seen. The Australian laughs, tipping his head back. 

Fuck Australians. Fuck the whole fucking continent. 

Carden comes over when he's been to the bar, when the band has finished and the DJ is playing something that just sounds like noise. "Okay?"

"Sure," Travie says, and looks at the stage, at Disashi, at his phone - anywhere so long as he doesn't have to look at Carden. At least Chizzy didn't come over too. 

"He's outside," Carden says. 

Travie looks at him quickly. 

Carden shrugs. "If you wanted to know."

Travie wants to say, I don't want to know. He wants to say, I don't care where Bill is. He really wants to say, How the hell do you know about any of it?

He says nothing and doesn't move, just looks at Disashi like nothing's any different. 

Disashi plucks the beer from his hand and says, in a very gentle voice, "Go talk to him."

Travie sighs, and goes outside. It's warm, with a threat of a summer storm on the way. Bill is leaning on the corner of the building, lit up by the orange end of a cigarette. 

"I told you that's bad for you," Travie says, and takes the cigarette from Bill's mouth to put it in his own.

"A lotta things are bad for me," Bill says with a sigh. "Did they tell you I was out here?"

"Carden. Are you hiding from me?"

Bill shrugs. "I didn't know if you'd want to see me."

"Not a reason to miss the band, though." 

"I want to talk." 

"There's nothing to say, kid. We said it all."

"We didn't say it all, if we said it all we'd be together now instead of hiding from each other."

"You think that just because you said sorry that means I have to forgive you?" Travie takes a furious draw on the cigarette. "And since when does Carden know, anyway?"

"Since I arrived drunk at his place, crying and spilling my guts to him. If you loved me, you'd forgive me."

"If _you_ loved _me_ , you wouldn't sleep with your guitarist," Travie counters, and grinds the cigarette out angrily against the wall. He wants to go home. He wants to take Bill. He wants to punch someone. He definitely wants to get high. That last one is kind of the easiest, so he lights up and leans against the wall, trying to pretend Bill isn't there.

"I'm gonna get a beer," Bill says eventually. 

Travie expects him to come back out, but he's smoked nearly the whole joint when he hears the music stop ready for the band, and Bill hasn't reappeared. Travie heads back inside, feeling calmer and a little buzzed. He finds Disashi and the others and stands quietly watching the band. They're pretty good, so Travie concentrates very hard on watching them and not Bill and definitely not Chizzy, who has no actual right to be so pretty. 

"You know," a voice says in his ear, making Travie jump in surprise, "I noticed you didn't disagree when I said the ell word."

Travie lets his arm snake around Bill's waist. Bill's breath is beery warmth on Travie's cheek. Travie turns and kisses Bill's mouth gently. "You're not forgiven."

"I didn't expect to be." 

Bill doesn't move away, so Travie risks another kiss. He feels rather than sees Disashi move away from the two of them, giving them some privacy or the illusion of it, anyway. 

"But I do love you," Travie says. He isn't looking at Bill, but he feels Bill smile. 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah." Travie pulls him closer.

Bill kisses his neck. "I love you, too." 

Travie makes a noise in his throat, unsure how to feel about that. The two of them have been fucking around for months, more off than on, but when they're together they have a good time. Bill didn't want anyone to know, because his break up was too recent and he felt it looked insensitive. That suited Travie, who didn't care who knew but who didn't go around talking about it, either. Sure Disashi knew, but that was because he and Travie shared an apartment. An apartment that had very thin walls. 

And then Bill went on tour and slept with Chizzy, and then even more stupidly came home and told Travie about it. He'd have liked to live in ignorance. What happens on tour can stay there. It says a lot about Bill Beckett that he felt guilty enough to tell. 

And yeah, maybe Travie didn't have any right to be upset, but he'd felt betrayed and angry. Whatever this was, it worked, and Bill had ripped it from under them. 

Love, though, they've never talked about love. And now, in a crowded club watching yet another band, Travie thinks that saying it is cool and what's more Bill says it back? The fuck. 

After the show everyone goes back to Carden's place. He's living with his mom again for a while, so Travie says hi to her and accepts her offer of an herbal tea. He's pretty sure that Carden's mom spends most of her down time smoking weed in the yard, but he's never said anything and he'd never say that to Carden -- although the idea of doing so is kind of amusing. Travie chooses peppermint tea and goes into the den, where everyone is watching Butcher play Bob Dylan badly on guitar. Travie sits in one of the loungers and crosses his legs. 

Bill comes to sit next to him, resting on the arm of the lounger, only he overshoots because he's drunk and ends up practically sitting in Travie's lap. That's nothing new, because Bill is handsy at the best of times, and even more so when drunk, but what is new is that Travie catches him, rests one arm on his thigh and the other on the small of his back. Bill beams at him. 

"Okay?"

"I'm okay," Travie says, but he feels shy at looking up at everyone. He can feel their eyes on the two of them and he wants to say something. "Hey," he says, and everyone goes quiet, even Butcher with the guitar. "Maybe you don't all know, but..."

"We all know," Carden says, but not unkindly. 

"You guys are cute," Victoria says. She leans and kisses Travie's cheek.

Butcher grins at him and then starts to sing 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight'. Bill laughs and although Travie could cheerfully strangle Butcher he laughs too and runs his fingers up Bill's spine. 

Sisky passes them a bottle of beer each and stays close, leaning on the edge of the lounger. Chizzy goes past on his way back from the bathroom and Bill catches his sleeve. 

"Michael," he says. "Come talk to Travis."

"Sure," Chiz says, and turns to them. "Hey."

"Hey," Travie says. 

"I didn't know about you guys," Chiz says quietly. "Really, I didn't."

"I believe you," Travie says. "I'm not sure there was an us guys, anyway."

"It was my fault," Bill says. "I should've known better."

"Nah," Travie says, because maybe if Bill hadn't slept with someone else, Travie wouldn't have realised there was anything between them to lose. And right now, that would've been a huge mistake. 

"Truce?" Chiz says, and holds his hand out to Travie. 

Travie reaches around Bill to shake Chiz's hand. "No worries, man."

"Thanks mate." Chiz perches on the other arm of the chair to talk to them and Travie, still buzzed a little from the joint and the beers, watches him carefully, watches his Adam's apple bob up and down when he drinks, watches him laugh at Bill's jokes. Travie can see the attraction, sure, but he curls his arm around Bill's thigh just a little bit tighter.


End file.
